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Emma Lazarus
| birth_place = New York City, New York | death_date = November | death_place = New York City, New York }} Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 - November 19, 1887) was a Jewish-American poet. She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883, which is inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.Watts, Emily Stipes. The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977: 123. ISBN 0-292-76540-2 Life Lazarus was born in New York City, the 4th of 7 children of Moshe Lazarus and Esther Nathan, Portuguese Sephardic Jews whose families had been settled in New York since the colonial period. She was related through her mother to Benjamin N. Cardozo, Associate Justice of the U.Sx Supreme Court. From an early age, she studied American and British literature, as well as several languages, including German, French, and Italian. Her writings attracted the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He corresponded with her until his death. Literary career Lazarus wrote her own poems and edited many adaptations of German poems, notably those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. She also wrote a novel and 2 plays. Her most famous work is "The New Colossus", which is inscribed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The sonnet was solicited by William Maxwell Evarts as a donation to an auction, conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise funds to build the pedestal. p. 3: Auction event named as " Lowell says poem gave the statue "a raison e'tre;" fell into obscurity; not mentioned at statue opening; Georgina Schuyler's campaign for the plaque p. 45: Solicited by "William Maxwell Evert" presumably [[William M. Evarts|William Maxwell Evarts]] Lazarus refused initially; convinced by Constance Cary Harrison Lazarus began to be more interested in her Jewish ancestry after reading the George Eliot novel, Daniel Deronda, and as she heard of the Russian pogroms in the early 1880s. This led Lazarus to write articles on the subject. She also began translating the works of Jewish poets into English. In the winter of 1882, multitudes of destitute Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from the Russian Pale of Settlement to New York; Lazarus taught technical education to help them become self-supporting. She is known as an important forerunner of the Zionist movement. She argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland 13 years before Theodor Herzl began to use the term Zionism.Yearning for Zion by Briana Simon (WZO Hagshama) She traveled twice to Europe, first in May 1885 after the death of her father in March and again in September 1887. She returned to New York City seriously ill after her second trip and died 2 months later on November 19, 1887, most likely from Hodgkin's lymphoma. Lazarus is buried in Beth-Olom Cemetery in Brooklyn. Recognition Lazarus' close friend Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (the wife of poet George Parsons Lathrop) was inspired by "The New Colossus" to found the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. A bronze plaque with the words to "The New Colossus" was affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1903."Notes on Life and Works," Selected Poetry of Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto, UToronto.ca, Web, Dec. 2, 2011. Lazarus was honored by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President in March 2008, and was included in a map of historical sites related or dedicated to important women. http://www.mbpo.org/free_details.asp?ID=234 Publications Poetry * Poems and Translations: Written between the Ages of Fourteen and Seventeen. New York: privately printed, 1866; New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1867. * Admetus, and other poems. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1871. *''Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death, and other poems. New York: The American Hebrew, 1882. **''Songs of a Semite. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Literature House, 1970. * Poems (edited by Josephine Lazarus). (2 volumes), Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1888. Volume I, Volume II. *''Selected Poems'' (edited by John Hollander). London: Secker & Warburg, 1972; New York: Library of America, 2005. * Emma Lazarus: Poet of the Jewish people '' (edited by Emma Klein). Arthur James, 1997. Plays *The Spagnoletto: A play in five acts. 1876 (unpublished ms) Fiction * ''Alide: an Episode of Goethe's Life (novel). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1874. Non-fiction *''An Epistle to the Hebrews''. New York: Press of Philip Cowen, 1900. **(edited by Morris U. Schappes). New York: Jewish Historical Society, 1987. *''Disraeli the Jew: Essays by Benjamin Cardozo and Emma Lazarus'' (edited by Michael Selzer). Great Barrington, MA: Selzer & Selzer, 1993. Translated * Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine. New York, 1881. Collected editions *''Emma Lazarus: Selections from her poetry and prose'' (edited by Morris U. Schappes). New York: Cooperative Book League, Jewish American Section, International Workers Order, 1944. **2nd edition (revised & expanded). New York: Book League, Jewish People's Fraternal Order of the International Workers Order, 1947. **3rd edition (revised & expanded). New York: Emma Lazarus Federation of Jewish Women's Clubs, 1967. *''Emma Lazarus: Selected poems and other writings'' (edited by Gregory Eiselein). Peterborough, ON & Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 2002. Letters * The Letters of Emma Lazarus, 1868-1885 (edited by Morris U. Schappes). New York: New York Public Library, 1949. *Bette Roth Young, Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and letters. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1995. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AEmma+Lazarus&qt=advanced&dblist=638 Search results = au:Emma Lazarus], WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 17, 2013. Poems by Emma Lazarus #The New Colossus See also *List of U.S. poets References * Cavitch, Max. "Emma Lazarus and the Golem of Liberty," American Literary History 18.1 (2006), 1-28 * Eiselein, Gregory. Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings. USA: Broadview Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55111-285-X. * Jacob, H.E. The World of Emma Lazarus. New York: Schocken, 1949; New York: Kessing Publishers, 2007, ISBN 1-4325-1416-4. * Lazarus, Emma. Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems. USA: Library of America, 2005. ISBN 1-931082-77-4. * Moore, H.S. Liberty's Poet: Emma Lazarus. USA: TurnKey Press, 2004. ISBN 0-9754803-4-0. * Schor, Esther. Emma Lazurus. New York: Schocken, 2006. ISBN 0-8052-4216-3. Randomhouse.com * Young, B.R. Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters. USA: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1997. ISBN 0-8276-0618-4. * Notes External links ;Poems *"The New Year" *Poem of the Week: "The New Colossus" at The Guardian *Selected Poetry of Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) (4 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. *Emma Lazarus 1849-1887 at the Poetry Foundation. *Emma Lazarus: profile & 16 poems at the Academy of American Poets *Works by Emma Lazarus at Read Book Online. * Emma Lazarus at PoemHunter (93 poems). ;Audio / video *National Public Radio: Emma Lazarus, Poet of the Huddled Masses *Emma Lazarus Memorial Near the Statue of Liberty ;Books * *Emma Lazarus at Amazon.com ;About *Emma Lazarus in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Emma Lazarus at NNDB *Emma Lazarus at the Jewish Virtual Library *Emma Lazarus, 1849 – 1887 in the Jewish Women's Archive *Jewish-American Hall of Fame: Virtual Tour: Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) *Dr. David P. Stern: Welcome to my World: Emma Lazarus *On Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus" at the Los Angeles Review of Books ;Etc. Category:1887 deaths Category:1849 births Category:American poets Category:American feminists Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish women writers Category:Jewish poets Category:American Sephardic Jews Category:Jewish feminists Category:American Zionists Category:American people of Portuguese-Jewish descent Category:American people of Portuguese descent Category:People from New York City Category:Statue of Liberty Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:Women poets Category:19th-century women writers Category:American women writers